Saturday, September 02, 2017

Palette and Chisel at Woman as Warrior

Debra Balchen

Michael Van Zeyl

Two Palette and Chisel artists are included in the exhibit "Woman as Warrior" now showing at the Zhou B. Art Center in Bridgeport.

The show is associated with Poets and Artists
, which will be sponsoring another show of figurative art next April on the theme of "Visions of Venus". Applications will be accepted until mid January, 2018 - and no entrance fee is required.

There are several very good paintings in this exhibit.

If it took itself more seriously as an academy, this is the kind of national show that the Palette and Chisel should be hosting.

Sunday, August 06, 2017

Palette and Chisel at Gallery Victor Armendariz

Mary Qian

A commercial Chicago gallery is now displaying the work of three current members of the Palette and Chisel.

When was the last time that ever happened?

Victor Armendariz took over the roster of his former employer, Ann Nathan, when she retired, and he is continuing to emphasize various kinds of figurative painting that may be observational as well as cartoonish.

Andrew Conklin

Michael Van Zeyl

Those ae tubes of colored light installed beneath the right edge.

The figures seem to jump into the gallery space - even without 3-D glasses.

Sunday, July 23, 2017

Exhibit: Don Yang's Drawing Class

Don Yang, Portrait of Kevin

Don Yang has the most sculptural, clinical, dry, precise, Classical style of drawing at the Palette and Chisel. It's perfect in this depiction of Kevin Allen, an accomplished composer of sacred music for the Roman Catholic Church.

In its depiction of a sensitive, intelligent, disciplined, creative man -- this is one of the best portraits I've ever seen in our gallery.

It's a style that demands complete control of sculptural volume. The short comings in execution do not read as artistic expression -- they just read as clumsy mistakes.

And so most of the student pieces in this exhibit are eyesores.

But there are a few remarkable exceptions:

Cynthia Li

George Zaremba

George Zaremba

This portrait is especially remarkable because the face is so expressive. That woman's anxiety jumps off the wall.